As is well known, a variety of products typically marketed by fast-food retail establishments are provided to consumers after having been prepared with condiments such as ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, or relish. In this regard, many such establishments currently utilize manual dispensing systems for such condiments which deliver a metered quantity of condiment therefrom.
The majority of prior art condiment dispensing systems have comprised a portable, hand-held manually activated dispensing devices which are used to supply a quantity of the condiment to a food product. Although such prior art dispensing systems have generally proven suitable for their intended purposes, they possess inherent deficiencies which have detracted from their overall effectiveness and use in the trade.
The foremost of these deficiencies has been the inability of the prior art dispensing system to dispense more than one variety of condiment, in that such devices are typically suited for dispensing only one condiment at a time. Moreover, the dispensing devices currently known are generally hand-held, mechanical devices, having a storage hopper for the condiment thereof. Due to the relatively small size of the hopper necessary to permit proper handling and manipulation by the user, such devices must be refilled frequently with the condiment. This repeated refilling operation decreases operational effectiveness and gives rise to a greater likelihood of condiment contamination whereby the device is more susceptible to having a foreign material introduced thereinto during a refilling operation.
Thus, there exists a substantial need in the art for a reliable, relatively inexpensive apparatus and method for dispensing a variety of condiments through a single dispensing unit in a metered quantity and at a low flow rate, which is adapted to be connected directly to corresponding modern, sanitary bag-in-box containers for such condiments, thereby eliminating repeated refillings of the dispensing system and reducing the possibility of condiment contamination.